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SINGAPORE: The world's top business leaders are converging in Singapore for the Forbes Global CEO Conference.
Over the next three days, they will tackle issues ranging from global economics, education and even aging.
When Steve Forbes opens the Global CEO Conference in Singapore on Monday, his talk will have many listening closely.
The US market is now treading carefully over the sub-prime lending crisis and Forbes said it would have knock-on effects in Asia because the US is a major trading partner.
But the momentary pause would not come close to the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis.
Steve Forbes, president and CEO of Forbes, said: "The global system can easily absorb the losses, the uncertainty is where the real problem comes in. People are just holding up and when you hold up, the system freezes because you need a flow of credit. So it's not the size (of the assets), it's uncertainty.
"The Fed's got to do more to get the uncertainty out of the way so we can see what the problems are, write the losses off, and put in reforms and move on. But do so in an atmosphere where you can deal with the problem itself and not a lot of unfounded fears."
For now, all eyes will be on the US Federal Reserve and what Chairman Ben Bernanke will do.
Mr Forbes, who thinks the US economy will pick up again next year, also weighed in on the upcoming US Presidential Elections.
He worries that if a Democrat like Hillary Clinton comes into power, the global trading system may be in trouble.
He said: "The great danger of any Democrat getting in, especially if Democrats control both houses of the Congress in terms of the global economy, is trade. There is a lot of protectionist sentiment especially in the Democratic Party, far more than when Mrs Clinton's husband Bill Clinton was president in the 1990s. When he got his FTAs (free trade agreements) through Congress, most of his party members voted against him, it was with Republican support that FTA with Mexico got through."
The Global CEO Conference is the seventh in the series and the third held in Singapore.
It will bring together leading CEOs with a combined net worth of US$130 billion – 62 per cent higher than what they were valued last year.
- CNA/so
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